Gunnie Weekly (Week of Nov. 7)

Mixed News for the week of November 7, 2011

- Korea is going to toughen punishment on match-fixing in sport. I hope Korea also gets tough on crimes in politics. (source AFP)

- According to British American Security Information Council (BASIC), North Korea might have 6 nukes. This is what happens when countries give *foreign aid to countries like North Korea.

Analyst estimates of an arsenal of around six weapons, as noted in Table 2 in Chapter 2, are based on the amount of separated plutonium that North Korea may have been able to produce. These estimates suggest overall production of around 50kg of separated plutonium, enough for at least six nuclear weapons but possibly more. However, these estimates also need to be treated with great caution. The amount of fissile material used in each nuclear weapon depends on the sophistication of the design and there is no reliable open source information on North Korean nuclear weapons design. There are also uncertainties over how much plutonium North Korea has been able to produce and concerns over a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment programme shown to US academic visitors to North Korea in November 2010.

         *Foreign Aid [fawr-in, eyd]: To take money from poor people in wealthy countries and give it to rich people in poor countries.
              Ex. United States government taxed its people and gave it to North Korea as foreign aid.




- Speaking of North Korea, guess who is going to North Korea. The Samurai Blues (Japanese National Football [Soccer for Americans] Team) and its fans. (Samurai Blues)

- Interesting news. It almost made me happy until I found out it was a rumor. (that guy just won't die... ugh..) Kim Jong-il Death Rumors Rattle Markets. I thought it was interesting how the rumor actually rattled the Korean markets and the shares plunged a bit, and defense-related companies' shares rose.

Rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death spread through the South Korean stock market on Tuesday, driving share prices down and causing the won to plunge against the U.S. dollar. The KOSPI hovered around the 1,915 point level, similar to Monday's close, but fell steeply at around 2:20 p.m. when the rumors hit the market. It closed down 0.8 percent (15.96 points) at 1,903.14. 

The won, which had been slowly strengthening, reversed direction and closed at W1,121 per dollar, down W4.1 from the previous day's close. 

As the rumor spread, shares of defense-related companies surged. S&T Dynamics, which makes weapons and aviation systems, closed up 6 percent at W15,900, while Speco, which makes fin stabilizers for naval destroyers, ended up 4.2 percent. Embedded systems developer MDS Tech gained 3.7 percent, and Huneed Technologies, which makes communication and security systems, 3.5 percent.

- If you want to see how North Korea looks during fall, here you go. (North Korea in Autumn) Don't be fooled by the pictures thought because in reality, North Korea looks like this and this. (NSFW)

- Back to South Korea. As always, Korean politicians are fighting again (physically). Not a surprise. This time, they are fighting over the passage of Korean FTA that passed the U.S. Congress couple of weeks ago. Here and here. I find it ironic because former president Roh Moo-hyun (Democratic Party) initially negotiated Korea-U.S. FTA with U.S. Now, Democratic party, who is the minority, are opposing the passage for the sake of their political standing. No worries though (not that anybody really worried about it). KORUS FTA will pass in Korea. Too much is at stake for Korea to not pass the bill.

**addendum: GNP brings FTA to committee vote

Just in case people are curious about how they fight, you can watch this clip.

- I will finish with this. Good luck to all the Korean high school seniors on their college entrance exam, specifically called "College Scholastic Ability Test" or 수능. This the day when every parent of high school seniors turn super religious and start praying to everything so that their children will do well.

Jokes aside, College Scholastic Ability Test is Korean or 수능 is the Korean version of SAT, except it's only held once a year and it determines their place in college. Scoring high on the test will put you at one of top three university in Korea, S.K.Y. (Seoul, Koryo, Yonsei). Also, the whole country goes silent during time of the test.

Aviation authorities said 88 flights would be rescheduled to avoid noisy landings and take-offs during language listening tests in the morning and afternoon.

Drivers of vehicles and trains were asked to avoid honking horns near test centres.

The stock market's opening and closing was delayed by an hour. Many government offices and private companies also opened late to ease rush-hour traffic so that students could arrive at test centres on time.

A police patrol car, siren blaring, was seen escorting one latecomer outside Seoul's Whimoon high school. (source)

Good luck to all of them!!!